After a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in the WCW movie Ready To Rumble, WWE superstar John Cena was at the peak of his wrestling popularity when he starred in the 2006 WWE Studios movie The Marine. While The Marine barely made a profit in theaters (it grossed $22.2 million worldwide), it did much better in DVD sales. It's no surprise that WWE then tried to push Cena as an action movie star. However, Cena's following movie, 2009's 12 Rounds, did worse at the box office ($17.3 million worldwide) and the 2010 drama Legendary only made slightly over $200,000 from less than 200 U.S. theaters. Even the $3.8 million that Legendary earned from home media sales couldn't make the film profitable against its $5 million budget. Cena's 2011 movie The Reunion went direct-to-video, and aside from his recurring cameos in the children's movie Fred and its two sequels Cena hasn't appeared in a movie since. He didn't even star in the sequels to The Marine and 12 Rounds, as you'll soon see. Even though Cena has many detractors in the audience, WWE has realized that Cena makes more money for the company in the ring than on the movie screen.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
